At the caucus we passed the bylaws that had been on the website for weeks. One feature was to allow for staggered terms for the officers, so as to provide continuity and institutional memory. Another change was to allow filling of an interim appointment for vacancies in the event or resignation or inability to serve, failure to attend e-board meetings, etc. Numerous members worked real hard on them in order to get them out to the caucus before the deadline for distribution.

Ed Coleman, Ozzie and Lauretta Backus, Richard Morantz, Kelly Gerling, Katherine Bailey, Joey Sprague, Kerri Conan and others had worked real hard on them.

Anti-war Dems ponder bold action on Iraq

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The closest thing Congress has to a peace movement — 71 liberals who want to yank
Iraq funding and bring troops home swiftly — faces a dilemma: The lawmakers can back a Democratic plan they think is too weak, or they can block it and risk an embarrassing defeat for their cause.
It falls to one of their strongest allies, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. — whose San Francisco district is passionately against the war — to persuade them to accept a less aggressive stance.

Progressive Caucus Co Chair Frank Smith writes......
Dear Emporia Gazette Editor,

Representative Forrest Knox pushed to get a low-paying private prison in Yates Center for years. It appears that his real motive was to help Florida-based GEO Group get a law repealed that prohibits these prisons from building once again in Kansas. Prior horrific experience had caused the legislature to impose a ban on new for-profit construction long ago.

A deal was finally struck. Instead of the repeal, Yates Center would get a rehab facility meant to treat parole violators. Though it was hardly the ideal location, given that it would be located so far from adequate professional resources, it meant that Woodson County might get an institution that was actually viable, because state employees would receive living wages and decent benefits.

KELLY GERLING, well-known peace and political activist, will discuss how progressives can unite politically to create a formidable third force to challenge the corporate-dominated, money-driven politics that has dominated American governments for the past thirty years. A new political identity is emerging on the American scene. "Progressive" as a political identity is displacing "liberal" with the possibility of a substantive platform rooted in the best of the New Deal, the worldwide Green Party movement, the Green Party USA, the presidential candidacies of Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich, new progressive caucuses arising in state Democratic Parties, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the Democratic Party. While progressives are united by ideology, they remain divided politically in the two-party US political system. Kelly will discuss how progressives can move beyond the structural impediments that divide us and unite into a force that has the power to usher in a new progressive era in American politics

The Time for Action on Iraq

Democratic leaders are poised to give President Bush another $120 billion ($120,000,000,000) for the war, more than enough money to keep out troops in Iraq through the end of his term and enough money to expand the war into Iran. Democratic leaders want to fund the war while saying they oppose the war. They are promising to use the war as a campaign issue against Republicans in 2008.

We do not have time to discern whether the leaders who say they are for peace yet vote for war are motivated by sincerity, self-deception or duplicity.

71 Strong and Growing

Wednesday February 07, 2007

[Note: 7 new Members added in 110th Congress raising total Caucus Membership to 71, just 6 short of equaling 1/3 of the entire Democratic Caucus and by far the most diverse Caucus in the 110th Congress.]

EXPANDED PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS BREAKS NEW GROUND –
CALLS FOR BINDING VOTES AND BRINGING ALL U.S.
TROOPS AND MILITARY CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ HOME IN
A 6-MONTH TIME FRAME AS PART OF A FULLY-FUNDED
REDEPLOYMENT PLAN

New York Times

March 2, 2007
New York Times
By ROBIN TONER and JANET ELDER
A majority of Americans say the federal government should guarantee health insurance to every American, especially children, and are willing to pay higher taxes to do it, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

While the war in Iraq remains the overarching issue in the early stages of the 2008 campaign, access to affordable health care is at the top of the public’s domestic agenda, ranked far more important than immigration, cutting taxes or promoting traditional values.

Substance Over Image

February 26, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Six years ago a man unsuited both by intellect and by temperament for high office somehow ended up running the country.

How did that happen? First, he got the Republican nomination by locking up the big money early.

Then, he got within chad-and-butterfly range of the White House because the public, enthusiastically encouraged by many in the news media, treated the presidential election like a high school popularity contest. The successful candidate received kid-gloves treatment — and a free pass on the fuzzy math of his policy proposals — because he seemed like a fun guy to hang out with, while the unsuccessful candidate was subjected to sniggering mockery over his clothing and his mannerisms.

Body:
Spend a day with your Kansas Action Network colleagues to share information and get opinions from Kansas Legislators on KAN's initiative to raise the lowest state minimum wage in the country!
KAN Rally Flyer pdf

Private Health Insurance Is Not the Answer

Private Health Insurance Is Not the Answer
By Phil Mattera,
Healthcare reform is in the air.

Ideas for dealing with the 46 million Americans without medical insurance seem to be popping up faster than new cases of the winter flu. President Bush proposes to use tax deductions to help people buy individual plans. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to make it mandatory for everyone in his state to obtain insurance and would force employers who don't provide coverage to pay into a fund.